Hello Sanae

Well The day started off great!  Sanae my internet penpal from Tokushima came and picked me up at my apartment at a little after 11....and since I had accidentially slept in we headed out for lunch before getting started.  I'm sorry to say I forgot to get a picture of the Okonomiaki place we went to, it is supposedly a pretty famous one in the city.  She had a magazine it was featured in with her so she could find it.  I'm not the biggest fan of okonomiaki, but it was pretty good there!  She then took me to an Endo style Villiage about an hour from the center of town.  Not something I would have thought up for a first time meeting of 2 people, props to her for creativity.  We wandered the street taking pictures going in the shops and chatting for a few hours....and then found a cute little coffee and cake shop near the end of the street.  It was great, we got 2 coffees and a dessert each and them split them so we could both have a bit of each.  I had the sakura cheesecake and she got the strawberry tart.  Both were FANTASTIC!!  I may decide to add pictures of them later but for now just know I had a had no difficulty consuming my portion of either.



Right after we arrived



view down the street



Dinner after a few hours spent wandering the 100円 store.



 On the way back to Tokushima center, Sanae told me she had been chatting me up to her co-workers at Villiage/vanguard...a really neat store located inside big shopping centers around town.  She asked if I minded going to meet them all....having a foriegner friend here is kinda a bragging right...odd but whatever, its Japan stranger things than this are concidered normal here.  We spent a little while wandering the store chatting with her co-workers....her boss gave me some free pocky (whoot!!!!) and then we left.  As we were heading out I noticed a 100円 store and asked if she minded me shopping for some things for my currently bare apartment.  I think she probably regrets saying "yes" now...we were in there for something like 2 hours getting things.  In case you didn't figure this out a 100円 shop is the Japanese equivalent for a dollar store...only they have a huge selection of actually useful items at a semi-decent quality.  I spent nearly 10,000￥ ($100)  and it took 3 carts to fit all of it!! haha we pretty much stuffed her car to the brim.